By Gavin Godfrey, Atlanta Editor, Capital B

Last September I was invited to the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas. That timing is important. I was joined by other local (and some international) news editors, producers and reporters for an election misinformation symposium. With the midterm election right around the corner, we gathered to discuss ways our newsrooms could craft coverage that engaged audiences with information they can trust. 

For one of the sessions, the discussion revolved around battleground states and the pandemic.  A television news producer out of Wisconsin was expressing frustrations that viewers were listening to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ false claims about COVID-19 vaccines as opposed to trusting their local reporters.

In his Wisconsin dialect, Rodgers ad libbed a phrase I’ve heard before: “Well, dontcha know, a lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth can hop out of bed and get its pants on.”

Five months later those words (and that accent) are still stuck in my head. At Capital B Atlanta, a Black-led nonprofit news organization, our mission is to bring news to Black communities. Our work revolves around the truth, but we live in an age of rampant misinformation campaigns targeting minority communities. 

In 2023, locals are navigating short attention spans while cutting through the noise being shouted from digital megaphones by anonymous social media accounts, influencers and misinfo evangelists spreading “fake news” gospels. However, one bit of good news emerged in the last two years: more than 70 local newsrooms launched during the pandemic.

We shouldn’t be surprised. 

Yes, the business of news is struggling. However, local communities’ need for information to help them engage with civic life is more urgent now than ever. Residents in Atlanta, the metro area and state want to know how news will cover the issues in their backyard. Where can they go to…